odysseyroc

This week's crappy derby theme gave me plenty of time to work on this design that I've been wanting to finish for the last few weeks. I've spent a ton of time on this so far, hopefully it shows. I'm trying to get all of the less fun to draw elements out of the way first, that way I don't run out of steam after drawing the figure.

odysseyroc

qwertyuiop003 wrote:mabe it's just me, but his rite ring finger looks dislocated, mabe broken, to me. the ring and pinky fingers on his other hand look funny, somehow, too.

That finger is bent forward a little bit, so your seeing the part of the finger that is directly under the finger nail, not just the underside. I think you can see the shadowing better in the high res verions and it makes more sense. Hands are a pain in the butt to draw with any sort of complexity going on.

no1

odysseyroc wrote:That finger is bent forward a little bit, so your seeing the part of the finger that is directly under the finger nail, not just the underside. I think you can see the shadowing better in the high res verions and it makes more sense. Hands are a pain in the butt to draw with any sort of complexity going on.

that's just it, the perspective on it makes it look like it's just bending at one knuckle. i find it really difficult to bend any of my fingers very far at just the end knuckle; usually it wants to bend at the middle knuckle, too. i guess the second bend could be hidden by the perspective, but it just looks a little awkwardly bent to me.

odysseyroc

no1 wrote:that's just it, the perspective on it makes it look like it's just bending at one knuckle. i find it really difficult to bend any of my fingers very far at just the end knuckle; usually it wants to bend at the middle knuckle, too. i guess the second bend could be hidden by the perspective, but it just looks a little awkwardly bent to me.

Yeah, that finger is actually pretty straight on to the viewer, so even though the finger would be bent at both joints, it's a little bit difficult to see at that angle. It really relies on the shading and I do think it's more obvious what's going on in the high res version. There's a lot of crosshatching in the drawing, but a lot of it is lost with res-ing down for a jpeg. I'm done doing any kind of work today, but I'll take a look at it tomorrow and see if there's anything to do to make it more clear. I actually have photo-ref for this piece.

megsck

i give you props for drawing hands and making them look like hands =) i do agree that both ring fingers look a bit funky but that is probably because your looking off of your photo reference. real life looks weird sometimes and it doesnt translate well to drawing. i would maybe just straighten them out a bit more, the ring finger on the left looks like the knuckle is a bit high, if you lowered it the top part might not look so short. as for the ring finger on the right i think because its so close to the middle and so much shorter it makes it look tiny, i would just straighten out that one a little too.

other than those fingers the rest looks great, nice job on the cross hatching! =)

odysseyroc

megsck wrote:i give you props for drawing hands and making them look like hands =) i do agree that both ring fingers look a bit funky but that is probably because your looking off of your photo reference. real life looks weird sometimes and it doesnt translate well to drawing. i would maybe just straighten them out a bit more, the ring finger on the left looks like the knuckle is a bit high, if you lowered it the top part might not look so short. as for the ring finger on the right i think because its so close to the middle and so much shorter it makes it look tiny, i would just straighten out that one a little too.

other than those fingers the rest looks great, nice job on the cross hatching! =)

Thanks Megs, good advice! I'll play with it some more tomorrow. Another thing that bothers be about drawing fingers is that they aren't really cylindrical, yet they don't really have defined planes. They are a pain in the ass, but I really want to push myself to draw them as often as possible.

I mainly did this piece as an excuse to do some hand lettering. I'm trying to move toward doing that more often. I've gotten away from it over the years, but recently decided that I'd rather be able to just create my own letters to fit a piece, than to rely on a pre-made typeface.

megsck

odysseyroc wrote:I mainly did this piece as an excuse to do some hand lettering. I'm trying to move toward doing that more often. I've gotten away from it over the years, but recently decided that I'd rather be able to just create my own letters to fit a piece, than to rely on a pre-made typeface.

i hate drawing hands too, or to be more specific, fingers. maybe thats why i tend to draw in a more simplistic cartoony way =)

i love your hand lettering! my teacher took drafting courses in college and they taught him how to make his own type and he always writes otterific and perfect the first time. its a cool skill to have, if i ever have time in the future i think im gonna take a class and learn how to do it. i used to write my name in my own letterhead in high school but i havn't messed with it since.

odysseyroc

megsck wrote:i hate drawing hands too, or to be more specific, fingers. maybe thats why i tend to draw in a more simplistic cartoony way =)

i love your hand lettering! my teacher took drafting courses in college and they taught him how to make his own type and he always writes otterific and perfect the first time. its a cool skill to have, if i ever have time in the future i think im gonna take a class and learn how to do it. i used to write my name in my own letterhead in high school but i havn't messed with it since.

I started out in a sign painting program at school, but was really really bad at it, and eventually switched to graphic design. The digital tools help hide a bunch of my deficiencies.

bassanimation

megsck wrote:i hate drawing hands too, or to be more specific, fingers. maybe thats why i tend to draw in a more simplistic cartoony way =)

I'm the same way :\. It can be really helpful to use yourself as a reference for things, especially for hands. If you go in the bathroom and look in the mirror, pose yourself to see how things look. You can also have someone take a photo of you or your hands, feet whatnot, to use as reference. ^^

Looking pretty cool, Odysee! I also love the lettering. That is a skill all in itself. I used to do a lot of it in high school because I made a lot of football decorations ^^;. I still love to make my own text and titles, it just feels so much more natural than fonts.

odysseyroc

bassanimation wrote:I'm the same way :\. It can be really helpful to use yourself as a reference for things, especially for hands. If you go in the bathroom and look in the mirror, pose yourself to see how things look. You can also have someone take a photo of you or your hands, feet whatnot, to use as reference. ^^

Looking pretty cool, Odysee! I also love the lettering. That is a skill all in itself. I used to do a lot of it in high school because I made a lot of football decorations ^^;. I still love to make my own text and titles, it just feels so much more natural than fonts.

megsck

bassanimation wrote:I'm the same way :\. It can be really helpful to use yourself as a reference for things, especially for hands. If you go in the bathroom and look in the mirror, pose yourself to see how things look. You can also have someone take a photo of you or your hands, feet whatnot, to use as reference. ^^

I keep a mirror at my desk to look at my hands and for facial expressions, im just hope no one walks in on me while im using it, i look a bit silly making faces in a mirror. =)

odyssey, love your photo ref, haha, i dont mind if you dress like that everyday just as long has you have clothes on under that coat! ;)

paigeg

Awww, you beat me, before I could comment. I was going to point out that I thought the color on the coat was too subtle - too much same-same. And you went and changed it.! Guess I have to haunt this thread more regularly.

paigeg

Lol! I SO get that. My hubby thinks I'm out of mine every Halloween, when I go to work or the gym dressed up - usually as a male of some stripe (pirate, mad doctor, and three different male coworkers at last count; helps to have some unique individuals in the office). The trouble is, Halloween isn't always on a weekday, so I may be dressed up a day or two early.
Keeps people on their toes.

megsck

looks good odysessy, will there be blood? i love horror movies and wouldnt mind a little gore on my shirts =)

im also in the halloween spirit! just finished wolfman today, next up ill finally get around to cleaning up my creature from the black lagoon.
here are two versions, one with outline the other without, im thinking if i sub this the one without lines would look awwsome on a shirt, the other one im gonna sell as a print set with the rest i think.

odysseyroc

megsck wrote:looks good odysessy, will there be blood? i love horror movies and wouldnt mind a little gore on my shirts =)

im also in the halloween spirit! just finished wolfman today, next up ill finally get around to cleaning up my creature from the black lagoon.
here are two versions, one with outline the other without, im thinking if i sub this the one without lines would look awwsome on a shirt, the other one im gonna sell as a print set with the rest i think.[/img]

Definitely blood (or is it just barbecue sauce?) on the finished design.

On the shirt design version of the wolfman, have you considered maybe doing some "noir" style of lighting? Something to get some real deep shadow areas, maybe some rim lighting or whatever to add some drama and make a real great use of that dark canvas?

Drakxxx

odysseyroc wrote:Okay, I'm in halloween mode now. This idea came to me while I was working, what do you think?

Great idea man. I've been trying to work a character along the lines of this one for a Halloween shirt design for 2 years now because I thought he was so much fun.
He's from an early 80's horror film called "Motel Hell".

It might be amusing to do something with him for what your doing now with the Texas Chainsaw shirt, so I figured I'd pass along the possibility.

odysseyroc

Drakxxx wrote:Great idea man. I've been trying to work a character along the lines of this one for a Halloween shirt design for 2 years now because I thought he was so much fun.
He's from an early 80's horror film called "Motel Hell".

It might be amusing to do something with him for what your doing now with the Texas Chainsaw shirt, so I figured I'd pass along the possibility.

Oh man, Motel Hell freaked me out so bad when I was a kid. Heck, just the commercial for that or the Anthony Hopkins movie "Magic" would be enough to ruin my whole day.

When I was sketching my idea, I was like I should hit Drakxxx up about this. I like the idea of working that character in...I'll be PM'ing you later, man.

paigeg

imsochady wrote:I'm trying to design something for the art club at school, and here's what I got! Any suggestions to make it better? Help is appreciated.

I'm not much of an artist, but my first reaction was that you should probably rework the big penguin's beak a bit - give it a bit more triangular look. Subtle, not too pointy. But right now, it looks like O-face.

sTyLeS

odysseyroc wrote:Definitely blood (or is it just barbecue sauce?) on the finished design.

On the shirt design version of the wolfman, have you considered maybe doing some "noir" style of lighting? Something to get some real deep shadow areas, maybe some rim lighting or whatever to add some drama and make a real great use of that dark canvas?

I definitely like the dark canvas ones best. Remind me of old movie posters.

And I agree with odysseyroc. I was imagining a flashlight-under-the-chin kind of lighting, like they're hovering over you. Would look cool and creepy.

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